Gholaia (Bu Njem)

The Praetorium,
the residence of the commander, consisted of several parts. There was a
hall that gave
access to four rooms in the south and three in the north. Beyond it was
an open space (visible behind the Praetorium, partly covered with
stones),
and a store room (of which the remains are only just visible above the
surface). The open space may have been a garden with some palm trees.

Graffito

A
graffito from the bathhouse, made by a very capable artist, shows the
fort, with the Porta
Praetoria in front and two gates to the left and right. The
two towers left of the main entrance are the Praetorium,
the column to the right must have been some sort of monument. The small
structure between the two towers of the main gate must be the Principia.

The drawing shows the Praetorium as a high building with two tower-like
structures.
There may have been an additional floor. Still, compared to similar
buildings,
the Praetorium of Gholaia was a modest one. It did not matter very
much, because the commander must have received his guests in the
garden.
Even in the winter, it is hot in Libya, and when it rains, that's a
reason
to enjoy it.

Southeastern walls

The
walls surrounded an area that was 135 m long and 90
m wide (270
x 180 Punic cubits). As you can see on this picture of the southern
part
of the western wall, there were no towers on the corners of the fort.
This
is remarkable, because towers were a normal feature in the standard
fort.
It becomes even more remarkable when we take a look at a graffito that
was discovered in the bathhouse of Gholaia.

The southern gate (Porta principalis
dextra), of which only the foundations survive, once had a
large arch, on top of which was
an
inscription that recorded the building, which appears to have started
on
24 January 201. The commander in charge was a man named Julius Dignus.
Next year, the emperor, Septimius
Severus, personally inspected the newly founded forts of the Limes
Tripolitanus.

The western gate

The western gate, or Porta
decumana is known from a drawing by the French
traveler G.F. Lyon, which also shows a part of the
battlemented
northern
wall. The lower part, which we still see today, was
made
of natural stone, whereas the upper part was made of bricks. Each tower
offered space for at least six catapults, on three floors. The other
gates
must have been identical.

The archaeologists found some of the barracks, where units of
eight men (contubernia)
must have slept (if they
did not prefer to sleep on the roof). It is a bit odd that there
accommodation for seven contubernia, fifty-six men, per block only,
whereas
eighty
would be the normal number of people in a block. There were twelve
blocks,
so there must have been 672 soldiers: one cohors
and an auxiliary
unit.

The
remains of the buildings in the northwestern sector have not been
identified.
Perhaps,
they were stables for horses and dromedaries,
because they have not been identified somewhere else. And without
cavalry,
it would be impossible to pursue attacking nomads.

Baths of Bu Njem, detail

Close to the northern gate was the bathhouse, which was
erected in
202 by commander Quintus Avidius Quintianus. In one of the rooms, the
graffito
shown above was discovered.
Often, Roman thermae
had three types of bath: cold, tepid, and warm. It seems that Gholaia
had
two baths. The building also had a latrine.

The wood for the fire must have been cut in the oasis,
and this was
obviously an important job. Ostracon
#36
mentions a soldier sent away to get wood, and Ostracon
#5 mentions soldiers who are sent to the bathhouse, where
they obviously
had some work to do.

Inscription from the Ammon temple (Museum of Lepcis Magna)

North
of the northern gate (Porta
principalis sinistra) was the civil settlement (vicus).
From the ostraca,
we know
that there were temples and a dromedary station (Ostracon #5). The
vicus
appears to have been pretty large, because you can find sherds in a
wide
area surrounding the fort. A temple of the Libyan god Ammon
and something resembling a shopping mall have been excavated.

Surface finds

Surface finds to the north and east, but
also in the west and southwest of the fort prove that the vicus
surrounded the military settlement on nearly all sides; the satellite
photo suggests that the eastern part was surrounded by a wall.

You can recognize several types of
pottery. The
different colors prove that they were made from different types of
clay,
which means that the potters lived on different locations. It proves
that
Gholaia, although situated on the southern frontier of the Roman
Empire,
was well-connected to interregional trade. The greenish jar handle
betrays
silty clay and was produced somewhere along the sea shore. In the
southeastern
part of the vicus, we found several pieces of mica, which resembles
glass
and was a great luxury. In that area, the necropolis has been
identified,
to the south of the oasis, in the direction of the
desert. Perhaps the mica belonged to an expensive funeral gift.

The temple of Bu Njem, east of the fort

About the soldiers' lives and opinions, hardly anything
is known, but
it is interesting to note that east of fort Gholaia, the legionaries
erected
a temple dedicated to Cannaphar, a Libyan war god identified with Mars.
An inscription survives and explicitly mentions that the building was
erected in 225 by legionaries of III
Augusta. It is now in the museum of Lepcis
Magna. The names of the emperor Severus
Alexander and his detested mother Julia
Mamaea were erased after they had been killed in
235.

The
dominant wind, the ghibli,
is from the south, which explains why so much sand is covering the
outside
of the fort. In the distance, you can see the main road from Bu Njem to
the Jofra oases and a water tower that is close to the wells that the
Gholaia
fort had to protect. The waters smell of sulfur.

North gate

The fort was probably abandoned in the early 260s. However, the Bu Njem
oasis was too important to be left
unguarded.
Byzantine and Arab armies occupied the site and this small fort is a
reminder
of the Italian presence. If you want to visit Gholaia, Fortina Capitano
di Mondato is probably your best point of reference. It is immediately
south of the oasis, along the road to Jofra oases. The Roman fort is
about
800 meter to the east from the Italian castle.

It is surprising that today's people of the Bu Njem
oasis
are almost unaware
of the existence of Gholaia. When we asked for directions, we were sent
to the west, where, after ten kilometers, we should ask for more
information.
This is the correct road, but to the wrong Roman site: Ghirza.

Praetorium

Praetorium and
south gate

Barracks

Southwestern wall

Dedication to
Canapphar. The name of Alexander Severus has been erased (Museum of
Lepcis Magna)